Rhaebo is a genus of true toads, family Bufonidae,[1][2][3] from Central and South America. They are distributed from Honduras to northern South America including the Amazonian lowlands. Common name Cope toads has been suggested for them.[1]

Rhaebo
Rhaebo haematiticus, the type species
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Bufonidae
Genus: Rhaebo
Cope, 1862
Type species
Bufo haematiticus
Cope, 1862
Diversity
13 species (see text)
Synonyms

Phrynomorphus Fitzinger, 1843—preoccupied by Phrynomorphus Curtis, 1831 (insect)
Andinophryne Hoogmoed, 1985

Taxonomy

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The genus was removed from the synonymy of Bufo in 2006; an alternative view has been to treat it as a subgenus of Bufo.[1] At present, it is widely recognized as a genus.[1][3][2][4]

Andinophryne, consisting of three species, was recognized as a separate genus until 2015 when it was found out that its recognition rendered Rhaebo paraphyletic.[1][4] An alternative to synonymizing it with Rhaebo would have been to erect a new genus for Rhaebo nasicus, but this would have caused difficulty in assigning species without molecular data to correct genus.[4]

Description

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Rhaebo are characterized as lacking cephalic crests, having omosternum, distinctively wide sphenethmoid, prominent and notched exoccipital condyles, and yellowish-orange skin secretions. It is not clear which of these characters are ancestral and which are derived (i.e., synapomorphies).[4]

Species

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There are 13 species in this genus:[1][2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Frost, Darrel R. (2014). "Rhaebo Cope, 1862". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Bufonidae". AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. [web application]. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  3. ^ a b Vitt, Laurie J.; Caldwell, Janalee P. (2014). Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles (4th ed.). Academic Press. p. 491.
  4. ^ a b c d Ron, Santiago R.; Mueses-Cisneros, Jonh Jairo; Gutiérrez-Cárdenas, Paul David Alfonso; Rojas-Rivera, Alejandra; Lynch, Ryan L.; Rocha, Carlos F. Duarte; Galarza, Gabriela (2015). "Systematics of the endangered toad genus Andinophryne (Anura: Bufonidae): phylogenetic position and synonymy under the genus Rhaebo". Zootaxa. 3947 (3): 347–366. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3947.3.3. PMID 28637741.